-1-

Newsletter Mount Eliza Secondary College

Canadian Bay Road Mount Eliza 3930 Tel: 9787 6288 Fax: 9787 9888

Email: info@mesc.vic.edu.au Internet www.mesc.vic.edu.au

Website http://www.mesc.vic.edu.au/Information/Newsletters/

newsletters_homepage.htm

Editors: Geoff Petrie & Heather Hiam 15 June 2012 Volume 04/2012

This Newsletter is available in colour electronically on the College website and on the College intranet.

Dear Parents, Students, Teachers and Members of the Wider School Community,

COLLEGE RAFFLE: WIN A TOYOTA CAMRY VALUED AT $39,600!! This is our one major fundraising activity for the year and we would ask all parents, students, teachers and community members to support it in as big a way as possible to help raise funds for the building projects that include the final fit-out of the VET Music Centre and modernisation of existing classrooms. Apart from the first prize mentioned above, there are 102 other fantastic prizes including a

$10,000 Coles Gift Card! 4 Economy Return Tickets to Bali valued at $5,000, bicycles, scooters and a whole host of other prizes as well as incentive prizes for the persons selling the most raffle tickets. By combining with Scouts Victoria’s “Our School Raffle 2012”, we are able to offer these great prizes regardless of how many tickets we sell. $1.50 of every $2 ticket sold is retained by our school and the other 50 cents goes towards the cost of providing the prizes and the other costs associated with running the raffle.

This is a great opportunity to do something really effective to support our building fund with the opportunity to win some great prizes as well! Please support this event when your son or daughter is issued with a booklet of 10 x $2 tickets sometime in the next two weeks. Remember, Mount Eliza Secondary College gets $15 for every book of 10 tickets sold! If every student sells just one book of tickets we would raise over $12,000! Additional books of tickets are also available for enthusiastic ticket sellers, so please get behind this fundraising effort and see how much we can raise for our building fund!

TRAFFIC ISSUES We have a potentially very dangerous situation at present with some parents using the car parking driveways to drive in, drop off students and then try to do a U-turn to exit the car park. This results in parents doing dangerous three-point turns while other students are walking onto the school grounds. Many of these parents are also leaving the car park at dangerously high speeds and one student was almost run over again this morning.

PLEASE DO NOT USE THE STAFF CAR PARKS FOR STUDENT DROP-OFFS!! Apart from the 2-minute drop-off zone out the front of the College, additional drop-off points are available in Baden Powell Place behind Eden Gardens Nursery, along the rear school boundary in Mount Eliza Way and in Leicester Avenue which can be accessed via either Mount Eliza Way or Canadian Bay Road. All of these drop-off points have direct access to the College grounds and no child entering via any of these points will be required to cross any roads to get onto the College grounds. Please consider the safety of all our students and use one of these drop-off points and NOT the staff car park driveways in future. Thank you. SKATEBOARDS There are also serious safety issues at present in regard to skateboards, both for the riders of these skateboards and for everyone around them. There is also Vic Roads legislation preventing the riding of skateboards on local roads except under special circumstances. There is an existing school policy banning the bringing of skateboards to school unless for a specific sporting activity. Recently, some students have been bringing skateboards to school and storing them in Coordinators’ offices during the day. I would like to remind all parents and students that the existing school policy will be strictly enforced from Day 1 of Term Three (Monday 16 July) and no skateboards will be stored in any Coordinators’ offices from this day on. The same arrangements as currently exist for returning mobile phones to parents will apply to skateboards if any students continue to bring them to school after this date.

-2-

Police Request for Information to be Circulated to Parents and Students In the coming days and weeks, the CREST STOP (Social Tasking and Operations) team based at Mornington Police Station are going to be patrolling the local schools in the Mornington, Mount Martha and Mount Eliza areas, attending to traffic and safety issues. Police would like to take this opportunity to inform the school communities that in the future there will be an unmarked police vehicle patrolling school zones and targeting the following offences:

• Speeding in school zones

• Parking offences

• The use of mobile phones while driving

• Seatbelt offences

• Riding bicycles without helmets This initiative is in response to numerous complaints lodged to the Council and Police in relation to ongoing safety issues. The CREST STOP team can be contacted at Mornington Police Station on 5970 4900. Mobile Phones The existing school policy banning all mobile phones from use at any time in any classroom is being relaxed to include the clause “unless it is being used for an educational purpose as directed by the teacher.” This is in response to numerous requests from teachers that students be allowed to use their mobile phone as a genuine educational resource in the classroom and reflects the continuing advances in technology in relation to the capacity of mobile phones to access a wide range of services that can support educational purposes. The authority to determine when a mobile phone can be used for such a purpose remains at the sole discretion of each classroom teacher and students and parents need to clearly understand that exactly the same sanctions as currently exist will remain in place for inappropriate use of a mobile phone as determined by the teacher of each class. Geoff Petrie, Principal

Legacy Public Speaking Competition

On Wednesday the 6th of June 3 students (Elizabeth Gill, Danielle Lewis and Deborah Hill) represented the school in the Legacy Public speaking competition. All contestants had to speak a 5 minute prepared speech and then speak a 2 minute impromptu speech on the topic “If Only”. Both Woodleigh and Toorak students also competed in the competition and the judges were impressed with all contestants. It was Elizabeth and Danielle’s first time doing public speaking and they were both fantastic! Woodleigh came 1st and 3rd I was very privileged to have come 2nd. We all had an amazing day and special thanks to Legacy for their great work and Mrs Jackson for taking us! Year 11 student Lauren Kelly also competed in the VCAA Plain English speaking competition recently. While she didn’t get to

the next round, she did present a highly persuasive and humorous speech in favour of gay marriage. Congratulations on a great effort Lauren and good luck for next year!

Deborah Hill, Year 8 Captain We Are The Lucky Few!

Year 8 Exciting News – Term 3, 2012!

It is with great delight that we can offer a wonderful opportunity for all our Year 8

students to spend a day at the MCG. This excursion will include a day at the MCG, a world

class museum in a world class facility, as well as active participation in a fantastic

Learning Programme – “Writing Sports” and “Game On”. The students will be working

towards the excursion in their English classes, covering a number of learning outcomes

and skills.

The excursion is booked for the end of July so please make sure you submit the forms

and payments by Monday, 16 July. The forms will be distributed next week (18 to 22 June). The cost of the excursion

is $22 which includes public transport fares and the full day programme.

A few senior SRC students recently attended a motivating excursion to World Vision’s Global Leadership Convention held in Melbourne. The aim of the convention was to highlight the need to act now on global poverty issues and what students can do to help. Brittany Roberts, Nelson Felsinger, Natasha Sharp and Matthew Higgins all agree that we at MESC should help World Vision feed the millions of people dying of starvation each year. Later in the year, the SRC will be registering for the 40 hour famine and we hope that everyone can contribute even just a little. $30 will feed a family for a month in Africa so every little bit truly does count.

From your friendly SRC.

-3-

Year 12 Classes A number of parents have recently raised the issue of Year 12 classes not being covered when a teacher is absent. I would like to thank those parents who took the time to voice their opinions and am happy to announce a change in school policy due directly to those parents persuasive arguments. For the rest of this year, wherever possible, Mount Eliza Secondary will be covering Year 12 classes ensuring our students achieve the best possible learning environment. This change will hopefully reflect how much importance the school places on supporting students through their most important year of schooling.

The Pledge - Glenn Manton In term 3 we are very lucky to have Glenn Manton attending the School on a fortnightly basis. Glenn is a former AFL premiership player with the Mighty Carlton Football Club (he also had a stint with Essendon but we won’t hold that against him). He is a qualified teacher and has spent the last ten years since his retirement working with young people in a motivational capacity but also as a mentor for students who are going through tough times. Glenn will work mainly with year 10 students under the guidance of Aaron Prior focussing on the difficult issues that students face at that age. Glenn will talk at an assembly on July 17th and then be available for students over the coming weeks not only at the school but via social media. His role in our school will be as a advocate for any students who need his services. If you would like to find out more about Glenn and his work please visit his website at www.glennmanton.com.au and in particular can I suggest you watch the video from “Australian Story” which highlights Glenn’s work. Please be warned that the issues dealt with in the video may be confrontational for some people. Alternatively you can send me an email at plarkins@mesc.vic.edu.au

We would not have been able to get Glenn into the school without the support of Chris Watson from the Mount Eliza

Bendigo Bank, also Judi Adams and the work of School Focused Youth Services and I would like to take the

opportunity to thank them.

RYPEN Program On the 1st of June Daniel Fernandes of Year 9 attended a 2 night camp in Neerim South as part of the RYPEN program. RYPEN is a specialised program designed to cultivate and develop the inherent strengths of young people and in this case was run by the Rotary Club of Mornington. RYPEN is for students in Years 9 and 10 and Daniel was nominated by his co-ordinators for his willingness to step out of his comfort zone and take advantage of new opportunities. During the 3 days Daniel participated in group workshops, walks, public speaking, team building exercises and many other exciting activities. These exercises assist participants to foster a desire to be decision makers and future leaders. All costs involved were met by the Rotary Club of Mornington. Well done Daniel and thank you to Rotary.

From the CFA to Mount Eliza Community Centre to Decorating Cakes…………………….. This year in Mindware, Term 2 has been dedicated to the Individual Project and once again, some really innovative and creative projects are emerging. Students this year were encouraged to look outside themselves, and the school, and venture into the community, designing and implementing projects that would benefit the local community and for some, even further afield than that. Students have really been adventurous and have taken on some great projects proving just how remarkable our Year 9 students can be. We have a dozen or so students completing a program with the CFA in Mt Eliza, leading to possible recruitment into the Junior CFA. Some Year 9 students have taken on the Duke of Edinburgh Award Program as their individual project and this commitment will continue on throughout the year. We have students organising morning and afternoon teas for community groups through the Mount Eliza Community Centre as well as students designing and implementing special programs at several primary schools in the area. Some of our students are organising fund raising events for the Children’s Hospital and then there was the Skate Competition, helping out a Cambodian charity. Our Mindware students are completing projects such as a recipe book for people with allergies, cake decorating and even decorating bedrooms at home. We have had 2 students in charge of the Youth Forum for the Mornington Peninsula Shire Council, where they have been surveying all high school students on the Peninsula to discover how the Council can serve the youth more appropriately. It has been very impressive seeing our students take on so many different ideas and we look forward to the completion and presentation of these amazing projects early in Term 3. Mount Eliza’s Year 9 students keep on surprising us with their dedication and enthusiasm and energy. This energy will be needed in Term 3 too when we enter our City Experience Term. The Mindware Office will definitely be a hive of activity for some time.

From the Mindware Office

-4-

VCAL NEWS

Leaders in Environmentally Sustainable Schools Conference

Seven of our VCAL students, Bronte , Zoe, Chelsea, Samantha, Hayden, Sam and John attended the Leaders in

Environmentally Sustainable Schools Conference at the Briars facilitated by CERES Environmental Centre, in conjunction

with Frankston and Mornington Peninsula Shire Councils. The students were involved in workshops to develop their

leadership skills, working with students from other Colleges to investigate alternative approaches to action on sustainability

and had time to formulate their Plan for future initiatives for Mount Eliza Secondary College. One of these was the

announcement on World Environment Day June 5th

of a recycling initiative for cans within the College. With the slogan, “I

can, you can we all can do better” the black buckets for can collection will join the red buckets that are put out each day to

recycle and compost all fruit and vegetable waste in the College.

The environmental initiatives of the VCAL students have been selected for judging in the Australia wide Tidy Towns

Competition. Judging of several of their initiatives will take place on the 28th

of June with students having an hour to “sell”

the benefits of their schemes to the wider community to the Tidy Towns Judge. Samantha Ackland, Education Officer for

the Mornington Peninsula Regional Waste group worked with the class this week to show the students how to make formal

business presentations and to market and convey their sustainable messages.

Mount Eliza Garden Club

We have been very fortunate recipients of the generosity of the Mount

Eliza Garden Club who made a presentation at their last meeting of $250

for the purchase of fruit trees to establish a VCAL orchard. Students

Chelsea Price and Matthias Schwellinger accepted the cheque and

presented a short film on the VCAL gardening and recycling initiatives.

Mount Eliza Primary School were also very generous in presenting us with

a box of compost worms. The VCAL students will have an increased

involvement with the Primary School next term under a new initiative

instigated by ex-student Sally Freeman who works with the Stephanie

Alexander Programme at the Primary School.

It has been an exciting and busy period for Year 12 VCAL Danielle Crapper, a year 12 VCAL

student , was invited to the Awards ceremony of the Rotary Youth Encouragement Awards. As

a nominated finalist Danielle attended a Dinner at Brooklands in Mornington with her family to

receive an award of a certificate, trophy and book voucher. During the evening Danielle was

announced as the recipient of a cheque for $1000 to further her studies in 2013. As a VCAL

student Danielle has vocational training as part of her studies and is undertaking a Certificate

Course in Land Conservation and Management at the Briars. She intends to go on to tertiary

study in plant tissue culturing.

The whole Year 12 class were hosted

recently by the Mount Eliza CFA. Captain

Richard Hume, another ex- student of the

College, took two workshops with the

students, one on Occupational Health and

safety considerations and the other in skills

for working in a team, with all students trying

out the fire hoses and foaming machines.

SUSAN BOLLARD, VCAL COORDINATOR

-5-

A group of 18 students in Years 8 and 10 headed into the City on Tuesday 15th

May to listen to a presentation by children’s

author Eoin Colfer and for a tour of the State Library of Victoria.

Eoin Colfer has written many books for students, with his most famous series “Artemis Fowl” being very popular with our

students. Eoin’s talk was most informative and very entertaining. He told of how most of his characters and inspiration for

his stories came from situations involving his own family and friends. At the end of his presentation students were able to

meet him in person for an autograph, a quick chat and photo. The State Library of Victoria tour was very quick and we

were only given a short insight into the many features and services that the library offers to the whole of Victoria. We were

also able to see an exhibition of medieval manuscripts and some students were lucky enough to spend a short time in the

Experimedia Centre.

Gill Lovett Retirement

We recently farewelled Gillian Lovett and thanked her for all her work with the Proteads (Past

Students’ Association) upon the announcement of her retirement as secretary. Gill originally

“retired” from the College in 1996 from her work in administration (front office) after 20 years of

service. She continued to offer her services not only through her work as secretary of Proteads but

also for many years as ‘ticket seller’ and ‘front of house’ person at school productions. Gill’s

knowledge of the College, past staff and students has enabled her to produce many Proteads

Newsletters over the past 17 years, connect past students for their reunion functions and ensure

that we have a thriving association for all students to join.

Gill will continue to attend the Valedictory Dinner and Awards Evening to present the Proteads

Award on behalf of the association. Thank you Gill – “the College is proud of you!”

If you are a past student or staff member and would like information about the Proteads Association

and/or future reunions and events taking place please email proteads@mesc.vic.edu.au

Working Bee for Tidy Towns

WE NEED YOUR HELP AT OUR WORKING BEE ON SUNDAY 24TH

JUNE

9.00am-12noon Our school has been announced as finalists in the “Keep Australia Beautiful Victoria:

Tidy Towns – Sustainable Communities Awards” for 2012 and the judges will be

visiting us on Thursday 28th

June.

The VCAL students, under Susan Bollard’s guidance, have developed a number of

initiatives at the College in the area of sustainability such as the ‘Home Harvest

Exchange’ involving the wider community, ‘Red Bucket’ organic composting, and the

‘Sustainability Shed’. The students will be giving a number of presentations to the

judges on the day and taking them on a tour of the various areas around the College in which they have made a significant

contribution .

In order to assist them, and in recognition and support of their work at the College, we would appreciate your help at our

WORKING BEE on SUNDAY 24th

JUNE from 9.00am until 12noon – please meet in the Quadrangle.

Jobs to be completed on the day include:

- General rubbish pick up and removal of sticks and bark from gum trees

- Sweeping paths and removing black spots from walkways

- Barrowing and spreading mulch on garden beds

- Weeding

- Pruning

- Window cleaning

- Some planting and dividing up of current plants

Morning tea and a sausage sizzle will be available - bring your kids – big or small - many hands make light work! Please

RSVP lswannell@mesc.vic.edu.au or phone 9787 6288 if you are able to help us out on this day.

Library News

-6-

Mount Eliza Secondary College will be hosting a group of Chinese students and teachers for two weeks from Henderson Gaoxin No 1 HS, Kunming, China. This is the southernmost province of China, with the main city only 250km from both Laos and Vietnam borders. This area is known for its many flowers and gardens and has a very springlike temperature with winter in January averaging 8C and summer in July with 20C. We are looking for Host families to help us make their stay wonderful and are hoping to have as many students as possible hosted by families from within the school community. The students are aged between 13 and 18 years old and are here to experience everyday life in Australia. We hope that families include them in their normal family routines such as weekend sport and other simple weekend activities. These do not need to be grand affairs as the school will be taking them on excursions to Phillip Island and Sovereign Hill. Any MESC student hosting a visiting student can if they choose, be their buddy for the duration of their stay. We will ask buddies to join in some of the planned activities as well as accompanying them on an excursion to the Aquarium and MCG. Families will be remunerated $230 per week pro rata per student. They do not require their own bedroom and are more than happy to share a room. Hosts are to supply all meals and students need to be accompanied to and from school. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn about the Chinese culture and make new friends.

If you are able to host a student from Wednesday 1st August – Friday 17th August Please contact Frances on 97886231 or fkomic@mesc.vic.edu.au **please note: there may be a slight variation to the dates depending on flights

but no more than 2-3 days.

Gaoxin HS Study Tour 1st – 17th August

SPORT—Senior Girls Tennis

A team of 5 girls participated in the Southern Metropolitan Regional finals for tennis at Dendy Park Brighton on May 9th

.

The girls played fantastically well all day, winning their first 2 matches 5 sets to 1 against Lyndale SC

and Nossal SC. The last match was the final against SEDA who were also undefeated. SEDA is a sport

specialist college with a number of sports including tennis. The girls saved their best performances to

last, with both colleges winning 3 sets each. Unfortunately our girls were beaten on games only 25 –

32.

Congratulations on a fantastic effort by: Kate Hornblow, Jess Tyler, Alice Hornblow, Megan

Vermeulen, Tamara Byrne.

SENIOR Girls Basketball

The Senior girls Basketball team played their district competition at Dromana SC. The girls played well all day recording 2

wins and 2 losses. Congratulations to: Ashleigh Goetz, Jade Beal, Rhiannon Dey, Leah Bourne, Ciara Griffiths, Clarissa

Evans.

GREASE REQUEST To all parents & helpers out there! Our College Production of ‘Grease’ needs lots of ALL SIZES of:

• flared skirts

• Prom dresses (particularly taffeta & chiffon dresses)

• Black leather jackets. If you have any of these items in your wardrobes or shed we would love to borrow them. Make sure your NAME is pinned to them and leave them at the front office. We will make sure they are cleaned & returned to you after our show in early August. Please spread the word! Ros Williams & Diane Krosby (Co-Directors) Any queries: dkrosby@mesc.vic.edu.au; rwilliams@mesc.vic.edu.au

Woolworths Earn & Learn 2012 This year we will be participating in the Woolworths Earn & Learn program. The program is designed to assist schools in obtaining valuable teaching resources – simply by doing your grocery shop at a Woolworths supermarket. From Wednesday 9th May, you can collect Earn & Learn stickers when you shop at Woolworths. There’ll be one sticker for every $10 spent (excluding liquor, tobacco and gift cards). Place the stickers onto a sticker card and when the card is full it can be dropped into the sticker collection box here at the school or at your local supermarket.

-7-

Biggest AFTERNOON Tea – Cancer Council Victoria Fundraiser

.

Thank you to the parents, students and staff who supported

our recent “Biggest AFTERNOON Tea” Cancer Council Victoria

fundraiser, which resulted in us raising $507.00. We had a

great turnout, with lots of yummy food prepared by our

students and staff, and a HUGE THANK YOU goes to the Year

10 and Year 12 Food Technology classes in particular. Thank

you also to Linda Morris (Rotary Club of Mount Eliza –

President) and David Morris (MP Member for Mornington)

who came along to support such a worthy cause. We hope

that this fundraiser will become an annual event that all

members of our College community will support.

-8-

TERM DATES 2012

Term 1

2 February - 30th March

Term 2

16th April -29th June

Term 3

16th July -21st September

Term 4

8th October -21st December

“You can now follow us on Twitter and Facebook to find out about

upcoming events at the College”

http://twitter.com/mtelizasc

http://on.fb.me/zWNp06

UNIFORM SHOP

The New and Second Hand Uniform Shop

Opening Times During School Term:

Wednesday

8.15am—10.30 am

& 1.00pm—3.45 pm

First Sat of each Month - 9.00am – 12.00 pm

Telephone: 9788 6240

Orders can be completed online

Email: sales@fcw.comlau

www.fcw.com.au

PLEASE NOTE THAT CHEQUES ARE NOT ACCEPTED

IMPORTANT DATES Term 2 & 3 2012

**ABSENCE LINE**

STUDENT ABSENCE LINE

PHONE NUMBER IS

9788 6290

Access 24 Hrs a day, 7 days a Week

Tuesday 19 June Year 12 Tertiary Information Session

Saturday 23 June– 6 July Central Australia Camp

Friday 29 June End of Term 2

Monday 16 July Term 3 Commences

Friday 3rd August & Saturday 4 August “Grease”

Newsletter Update

Please note that our newsletter will now only be sent by email distribution

to the email address that has been provided to the College. If you need to

update or check your details can you p l e a s e e m a i l

hhiam@mesc.vic.edu.au or call 9787 6288. If you wish to receive a hard copy please let us know and we will be happy to post you out a copy. It is important that we have the correct details so that you receive important information on upcoming events